1923 – Mr. Bandleader, Play Me Mine!
One hundred hits, and one hundred songs, that went down in the history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic as songs that Czechs will happilly sing along to. Which song do you, our listeners, like the best? We are curious as to how you will vote on our web page www.radio.cz.
Today we travel back to the year 1923. Here is a reminder of a few historical dates:
January 5th marks the assassination of Finance Minister Alois Rašín, he died on February 18th.
On May 18th, regular radio broadcasting was launched in Czechoslovakia. Its operator was Radiojournal. Czechoslovakia has thus become the second country in Europe to have a regular radio program after the UK (BBC).
In 1923 the Czechoslovak State Airline was established.
In the early 1920's, after the stormy post-war boom, the cabaret business began to take hold in Czechoslovakia. One subsequent disadvantage was the combination of cabaret and restaurants. For example, admission to see the renowned Red Seven cabaret, which we have already talked about in past broadcasts, was not expensive; what was expensive was the wine and the food. The owner of Hotel Central on Hybernská Street in Prague, who rented out a room to the cabaret, blatantly profited from this. Things were not going well even in the wine cellar of the Prague Municipal House. The partnership eventually collapsed. In 1923, one of the last songs by the founder of the Red Seven cabaret group, Jiří Červený, was penned: Mr. Bandleader, Play Me Mine! It became not only a hit, but also a sort of representation of the life of the cabaretteer, who is eventually left with nothing but a track and the world of austere paragraphs.
A popular song, which is still played successfully in the Czech Republic at folk dances and balls, sung to us by Oldřich Kovář.
J. Červený: Pane kapelníku, hrajte mi tu mou!
